Flat racing loses fizz
British racing needs to find a narrative which will act as a hook to capture and engage the public. The marketing men have come up with a rather more horrible term - 'Premierisation'.
What they mean is that they want racing to copy the successful formula of English Premier League football and although some of the men who run racing shudder at the term, they all argue that it is absolutely necessary.
The evidence from Cheltenham would suggest that British racing doesn't need to change too much. This year's meeting has felt the odd gust from the recession but it still gives every impression of being able to withstand any economic gale.
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Edward Gillespie, the festival's managing director, expects spectator and hospitality numbers to be down by no more than 10%. As many as 220,000 could attend the four-day festival - in a good year Cheltenham gets 230,000 and given the economic gloom that surrounds us you can hardly blame Gillespie for feeling positive, while bookmakers expect to take £500m in bets during the festival.
But Cheltenham, and to an even greater extent Aintree which stages the Grand National meeting in April, represent isolated peaks for British racing, with flat racing, in particular, in need of urgent care.
If this is not done then, as Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of the Jockey Club, admitted to me, British racing could go over the cliff.
The ability of Cheltenham to ride out the recession cannot obscure the wider impact of the downturn, an impact that has seen horse sales both in this country and Ireland drop by between 30% and 40%.
And the picture could have been bleaker but for the intervention last autumn of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
When I put it to Henry Beeby, chief executive of bloodstock auctioneers Goffs, that the Sheikh had acted much as the government has done in bailing out the banks, he did not demur.
But problems for British racing pre-date the current recession and go much deeper. To illustrate this let me take you back a couple of weeks to a British Horse Racing Authority conference in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, where Harrison Fraser, a London-based consultancy, presented a report on "the future of British horse racing".
The very title gives some indication how serious the problems are and the consultants did not mince their words. Having spoken to the great and good of racing and also carried out an "external customer search" - 12 focus groups spread all over the country and a telephone survey of 500 people - the conclusions they drew were:
- Horse racing may be well regarded but "it is of low saliency to most occasional participants"
- Highly enjoyable as a day out but "a peripheral activity in most leisure repertoires"
- Lacks the "hooks necessary to capture and maintain engagements"
- The causal race goer is put off by the "complex nature of the product"
- And the final, devastating verdict: "current casual participants are insufficiently interested in either the sport or in serious betting to make the required investment in understanding it".
This is where the much needed narrative comes in. Maybe more by accident than design in the last few years jump racing has developed a narrative and this year's Gold Cup pitting Denman against Kauto Star is a wonderful illustration of that.
During the jump season, even on the bleakest of winter days, watching a race may mean spotting the horse that wins the Champion Hurdle, the Gold Cup or the National and visualising the contest between great champions as this year's Gold Cup will undoubtedly be.
The flat gives no such opportunity - in recent years, it has been one damned race after another with nothing linking them.The season's calendar does not help. Not only has arguably the greatest race in the world, the Derby, yet to find a sponsor but it comes so early in the season, in June. That's a bit like the Champions League final being held in October rather than May. Imagine how absurd that would make the football season.
Foreign competition has meant that the Arc, the Breeders' Cup and the Dubai World Cup have dimmed the glory of much of British flat racing. So much so that the Triple Crown (the Derby, St Leger and Guineas), once the pinnacle of British racing, is now a meaningless concept. It is almost a generation since a Derby winner bothered with the St Leger.
Although nobody will publicly say so, there are voices in racing which will agree privately that the Derby should perhaps be moved to the end of the season.
That may be too revolutionary for some but if moving it is considered impossible, a longer gap between the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby may have to be considered. If this is followed by shortening the length of the one mile, six furlong St Leger to stimulate the rebirth of the Triple Crown then the flat could get the narrative it needs.
But racing will have to do more than that and this is where the Premier League example comes in.
There are just too many races, often at courses that attract very few spectators. What is the point of an all-weather meeting in Wolverhampton on a bleak Tuesday in front of some 400 spectators just to provide a betting opportunity?
These races are little more than betting fodder. Of course racing is intrinsically linked to betting, indeed there can be no racing without betting - but the two need to redefine their relationship.
How they do that will be crucial. The only heartening thing in this bleak tale is that those who run British racing are well aware of the problems and are keen to address them, but even they realise it will not be easy to make changes.
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Mihir
I feel you are wise to differentiate between the state of Flat and National Hunt racing.
I agree with most of the reasons you give. However, it should also be rememembered that the public have a better awareness of NH horses because they take part in big races over several years.
Classic winning horses are whisked away to stud by their owners after their 3-y-o season, often having only run five or six times in their lives. Therefore, the most important element of the event, the horse, completely changes each year.
It is no coincidence that the three most popular horses of all times were jumps horses - Arkle, Desert Orchid and Red Rum. It was partly their longevity which made it so - until classic winners return to training as older horses, this imbalance in popularity will never be re-dressed
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Instead of looking at ways to change the tradition of the racing industry (I for one would leave the game if they moved the Derby from Epsom in June!) why not look at other ways to encourage people to come racing - ticket offers in the National papers; encourage schools to get involved in the Racing to School programme (Google it!); get our personalities - the jockeys, trainers, owners - out there giving interviews in the papers and appearing on tv; offer syndicate opportunities in the National papers, eg pay £50 and own a share in a racehorse for one year, etc.
As for the comments on the sales, yes sales turnover is down, but the good quality horses are still selling for good money - it is the bottom end of the market that has suffered and that is simply down to overproduction. Too many breeders are breeding from bad quality mares and using bad quality/unproven stallions.
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Excellent article Mihr, the problem is now as arguable always has been, getting new people interested in the sport.
As it stands the only younger people who attend race meetings tend to either be (for want of a better phrase) horsey people or those on a stag/hen/birthday party. Getting people in their 20's te regularly go to meetings just for a love of the sport and a flutter seems to be something successive generations in horse racing have tried and failed to do.
It's hard to see how horse racing can get over certain (no pun intended) hurdles, it's percieved as expensive, upper class and to convaluted to be accessible to the younger person. All of these reasons are arguably unfair one must admit, a trip to the races (betting and drinks included) costs about the same as a day trip to Stamford Bridge or Lords, horse racing has arguably never been as upper class as its stereotyped to be and it's no more complicated than Cricket once you learn how it works. But these are the perceptions and repeated attempts to disprove them have failed.
I think the main problem with attracting punters is the atmosphere. I love the occassional trip to the races but I'm by no means a week in week out visiter, one or two trips a year. The one negative I always draw on is whilst there are many there just out for a good time there are a large number of people who take racing very seriously. The bookies can be intimidating if you're just betting a couple of quid as they're looking for the £100+ bets and one can be made to feel silly if you stand next to the form experts saying you like a horse because you think he winked at you.
If one goes to the football everyone in the crowd is equal, you're all they're to have a good time, you're all paying similar prices for equal entertainment and you don't have to have your knowledge or purpose for being there examined and proved. For some racing is just too intimidating compared to a day at the football, cricket or just down the pub.
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Fair play for giving racing some airtime for once but on the first day of the greatest show on earth, to have a news report on Flat racing seems disgracefully out of touch with the current week's atmosphere. By all means mention this problem in a months time but the time on the news should have been given to a review of the racing.
I agree that it is only the flat that has a problem. The jumps is great - its just the promotion that they have got wrong. They should be targeting new young racegoers with advertising, but have only advertised to the converted. I hope this changes but it should have been done years ago. I am a non-posh racing fan and under 20. The annoying thing by far is that the sport is great but there are not enough people to enjoy it with. My non-racing mates are the people who racing should be advertising to. It should be a clear, brilliant promotional campaign and any changes to the racing itself (e.g. calendar) should be done first. The quicker this starts the better because racing needs a strong youth base to carry the sport forwards in the future. There are brilliant young jockeys out there putting their lives on the line. They should be rewarded with the respect and support they deserve by more people.
The aim should be to get people 'hooked' and not just be an occasional racegoer. Believe me, once you are hooked on racing you are hooked for life and racing will gain from your investment.
Finally Mihir and the BBC, if Tony McCoy is not on the shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year then there is a serious misjustice. Make sure it happens please.
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Could the lack of comments be evidence of a lack of interest in racing?
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Some sort of "Golden League" of racing would make a lot of sense. The BBC could show a bit more support - so far this year the 1-2.30pm slot on Saturdays has been devoid of genuine sport most weeks, a slot perfect for some racing surely.
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